5 Things That Never Happened to Hermione Granger
by kayjay216
Summary: These are the things that didn't happen to Hermione Granger.
1. I

**Author's Notes**: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended. Reviews are printed out, framed, and hung upon my wall.

Hermione Granger has grown up knowing that she is strange – her classmates at primary school have made her painfully aware of this fact on a daily basis. But strange things also happen around her. Once, while she was washing dishes, she dropped a glass and it shattered, cutting her hand. She screamed, bringing her parents running into the kitchen, but by the time they ran in, both the glass and her hand were healed as if nothing had ever happened. Another time, she forgot her key after school, and she was tugging on the doorknob when suddenly the door unlocked, swinging open in front of her.

She never told her parents about that.

She feels like there's something about herself that she's just waiting to discover, something that she doesn't know about herself, but she'll find out. She's different, she's special, she knows that, but she doesn't know how or in what way.

Her eleventh birthday falls on September 19, 1990, and she celebrates it with a small party with her family. The next day, she comes home from school to find, unusually, her parents home from their surgery, perched uncomfortably on chairs in the living room, and staring with bemused interest at a stranger wearing a midnight blue bathrobe, who has seated herself on the sofa.

The woman stands when Hermione enters the parlor, extending a hand. "You're Hermione?" she says.

"Good afternoon," Hermione says, shaking the woman's hand, but looking at her mother.

"Hermione," her mother says, sounding strangled. "This is Professor Sinistra. She says she's from a school called Hogwarts."

"Yes," Professor Sinistra says. "I'm glad you're here, Hermione. It's very important that I speak to you. You see, Hermione. you're a witch."

Hermione feels like the air has gone out of the room. The room is absolutely still and Hermione knows both her parents are holding their breath.

"A witch?" she asks. "Really? But there's no such thing as –"

"Oh, there is," Professor Sinistra says, chuckling, and then proceeds to tell her about Hogwarts, the school for all the magical children of England, where they learn to manage and control their magic. She speaks about the classes at Hogwarts, the grounds, the history and the tradition. Hermione listens raptly – an explanation for the weird things that happen to her? A school where she won't be the freak in the front row? – but her mother frowns deeply.

Professor Sinistra finishes speaking and watches Hermione's parents. This is it, this is the missing piece, Hermione realizes. This is what she has been waiting to find out about herself. She is bursting with questions, foremost of all being "when can I go?", but her mother has questions of her own. "But what will she _learn?_" she asks.

"Excuse me?" says Professor Sinistra.

"But what will my daughter _learn?_" Catherine Granger repeats. "What history? What philosophy? What about math and science? Do you teach literature? Hermione is _gifted_. She needs a complete education, not just this focus on _magic_."

Hermione freezes, unable even to protest. Professor Sinistra blinks and speaks again about the classes offered at Hogwarts – Charms, Transfiguration, History of Magic, Potions, Herbology. It sounds like something out of a dream to Hermione, classes infinitely more exciting than what she is learning now, but her mother shakes her head.

"No, no," Hermione's mother says. "You're just going to _teach_ Hermione. You're not going to give her an _education_. That's what she needs. My Hermione is going to be someone, someday. No, she'll keep her place at Avonhurst, and that's that."

Professor Sinistra argues with Hermione's mother for at least half an hour. Hermione sits mutely, her hands pressed in her lap, while her father leans back in his chair and passively watches the discussion. Finially, Professor Sinistra, eyes glittering, asks Catherine Granger, "So that's your decision?"

Hands on hips, Hermione's mother says, "She's not going, and that's final."

"Very well then." Professor Sinistra raises a small wooden stick above her head – a wand, Hermione realizes – and cries, "_Obliviate!_"

Hermione blacks out.

She jerks awake and has to look at the clock to see what time it is. Her parents wake up shortly after, and observe rather confusedly that they all must have been tired to take a nap at the same time.

After that, the strange incidents stop.


	2. II

Most of the fall term of Hermione Granger's fourth year is spent in the library, avoiding Harry and Ron, who are more temperamental than ever. This year, though, the library isn't the refuge it has been in her previous years. Viktor Krum, Quidditch player and Triwizard champion, is apparently making an effort to keep up with his studies while at Hogwarts, spending nearly as much time in the library as she does. Whereever Krum goes, packs of giggling fangirls follow, and Hermione finds herself retreating further and further into the library to avoid the noise and the distraction.

Hermione finally manages to find a study carrel that is backed into a corner of the library, hidden behind bookcases that abut the library's walls. It is secluded and nearly invisible unless one is looking for it. So it is, a week or so later, that she is surprised when a gravelly voice says, "Hermy-own Granger?"

"Hermione," she automatically corrects, too used to having her name mispronounced, and then looks up, startled. Viktor Krum is standing beside her carrel, slump-shouldered and beetle-browed, and looking distinctly nervous. "Can I help you with anything?" she asks.

"Hermy-own," he says. "I haff been – I haff been wanting to ask you –"

He pauses, and Hermione waits for him to ask her for help with the Second Task, starts readying her words. _No, I'm sorry, I can't help you, you'll have to figure it out yourself . . ._

"It would be an honor," he continues, "if you would accompany me to the Yule Ball."

Hermione freezes. This, she can say, is the last thing she was expecting him to ask her, the last thing she was expecting _anyone_ to ask her. Truthfully, there is only one person she wants to ask her to the Yule Ball, but since he is currently showing all the emotional awareness of a boiled turnip, she hasn't been holding out much hope.

"Krum, I –" She stops, torn. No, Krum is not the person she wants to go with, but he is the only one who has asked her. She thinks, quickly, and then says, "Tomorrow. I'll let you know tomorrow if I can or not."

He nods, looking resigned.

That evening, Hermione sits by the fire in the Gryffindor common room, rereading her copy of _Hogwarts, A History_, biased as it is, because it is her security blanket. Her thoughts seem stuck in an endless loop of _This is it, this is Ron's last chance to ask me. If he doesn't ask me now, he doesn't care, and it's over, and I'll tell Krum yes._

Periodically she watches Harry and Ron over the top of the book. They are doing their homework at a table across the room and arguing fiercely, if quietly. Every now and then they look her way and then return to their argument. Finally, Harry gestures strongly at her, thumps Ron on the shoulder, and then returns to his homework, shaking his head. Ron sits, staring off into space, and then bounces to his feet. Hermione drops her eyes to her book as Ron works his way through the crowded common room, tripping once over Dean Thomas's bag.

"Hermione," Ron says, his voice cracking, and he tries again. "Hermione."

She marks her place with her cat-shaped bookmark and looks up. "Yes, Ron?"

He fidgets, standing in front of her, and then bursts out, "Harry said I should ask you to the Yule Ball."

"Oh, well, if _Harry_ told you to," she says acidly, and reopens _Hogwarts, A History_.

"_Hermione_," Ron says, sitting in the empty easy chair beside her. "Harry said I should ask you to the Yule Ball before someone else did. So . . ."

She debates telling him that someone else already has. Instead, she holds her tongue, and Ron finally says, "So, Hermione, will you go to the Yule Ball with me?"

"Yes," Hermione says.

Krum takes the news well when she tells him. Later, she sees him sitting with Padma Patil at a table in the library. _He'll be all right_, she thinks, and as Ron arrives with a kiss and an offer to carry her books, she realizes, _and so will I._


	3. III

Before the Durmstrang students return to their school at the end of fourth year, Viktor Krum again asks Hermione to come visit him in Bulgaria. After the turmoil of the summer term, and faced with the prospect of spending another uncomfortable summer with her parents, she accepts and starts making plans as soon as she steps off the Hogwarts Express.

Her parents aren't exactly happy about her decision, but they let her go anyway. Hermione knows they haven't known what to do with her since the first summer she came home from Hogwarts, talking excitedly about classes and showing off her pincushion stuck with needles that used to be matchsticks. So it is that Hermione packs a bag and flies to Sofia, Bulgaria at the end of the month, to spend three weeks on holiday. Viktor greets her at Sofia Airport with a kiss on the cheek and an offer to carry her bags.

As he walks her out to the taxi stand, he explains that although he has a flat of his own in Vratsa, she will be staying with his parents here in Sofia. "Quidditch season is over," he says, "so ve will haff time together."

She blushes and is totally unable to explain why.

And they do have time together. Sofia is an ancient city, historic, and Viktor takes Hermione through all the museums, translating the Bulgarian text for her. In the evenings, they return to his parents' flat for dinner, talking or playing board games until it is time for Viktor to return to his flat in Vratsa. The first evening, he asks her if he can kiss her goodnight, and she hesitantly says yes. After that, a kiss good night becomes part of the routine. "Ve will see each other tomorrow," he tells her before leaving.

At some point, Hermione realizes guiltily that these are becoming less goodnight kisses and more goodnight _snogs_. She wrestles with the decision of whether to back things off or not. Yes, she admits to herself, squirming, Viktor is not the person she pictured herself snogging on a regular basis. But he is the one who saw her, recognized her as something other than a walking textbook. He tells her she is beautiful, and all of Hogwarts knows that she is the person he would "most miss." He wants me, she tells herself. He's interested in me. He may not seem like Mr. Right, but I should give him a chance.

So she lets him kiss her, and snogs back a little more enthusiastically. They walk through the Sofia Zoo, holding hands, and Viktor sneaks a kiss every now and then. He looks at her with this light in his eyes, like she is the best thing that has ever happened to him, and she squelches her unease and smiles back.

In the second week of Hermione's visit, they explore more of the country, sometimes flying – which always leaves Hermione queasy – or Apparating, which leaves her queasy in different ways. They spend a day on the beach in Varna, playing in the surf, and Viktor takes her to the Quidditch stadium where he plays with the Vultures. His teammates call her the pretty _anglíski_ and make jocular comments over her head in Bulgarian that cause Viktor to scowl.

And meanwhile their relationship – their _physical_ relationship, Hermione clarifies to herself – is deepening, changing. She has done . . . _things_ . . . that she blushes to even think about, things that she definitely won't tell her mother about – that she's not even sure she'll tell Ginny about. She stands at the window of Viktor's flat, staring out across Vratsa and to the mountains beyond, and feels years older than she did before she left.

On the Wednesday before Hermione is supposed to go back to London, Viktor tells her he is in love with her. She is both miserably amused at the phrasing and anguished over what she should say back. She does not love him, no. She has come to care for him, feel some affection for him, but it is nothing that could be mistaken for love. Hermione debates telling him that, but then thinks of Ron and his stubborn pigheadedness, and finally stammers back that she thinks she feels the same way. The bright smile he gives her only solidifies the lump of disquiet in her stomach.

During her last four days in Bulgaria, they tour the southern part of the country – Blagoevgrad, Stara Zagora, Plovdiv. Viktor is the happiest she's ever seen him, and every time he looks at her his feelings shine from his eyes. She writhes inside, but thinks that it's just sparing his feelings, it's only for four more days . . . three . . .

On her last night in Bulgaria, Viktor asks her to stay the night in Vratsa, and out of guilt and obligation, she says yes.

And so it is that on August 19, the night before she is scheduled to depart from Bulgaria, a month before her sixteenth birthday, she gives herself to him. He tries to make it special for her, make it memorable, but really she just wants it to be over; afterwards, as he holds her and murmurs into her hair in Bulgarian, she thinks dully that at least it can be said that Hermione Granger always sees her mistakes through to the end.


	4. IV

Everything changes during Hermione's sixth year. After the battle at the Ministry of Magic, she goes home from Hogwarts early to recover, and when the tension at home drives her outside, she wanders to her old childhood places. After five years at boarding school, punctuated by only infrequent visits home, it seems everyone has forgotten her: they certainly don't notice when she walks by.

On the first of September, though, she returns to London and boards the Hogwarts Express with all the other students. She takes a compartment with Harry and Ron, who make strained conversation with her, trying to pretend that everything is normal.

Nothing is normal, though. Her entrance into the Great Hall prompts uncomfortable whispers, and she notices Parvati Patil giving her a wide berth when she sits at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, as if what Hermione has is catching. Hogwarts no longer feels welcoming to her. She returns to her dorm after the feast, but can't sleep, and restless, she prowls the halls.

For a few months, she manages to maintain her routine, attending class and meals and cheering for Gryffindor at the first Quidditch match of the year. It's not the same, though, not like it was before the battle. Harry gives up trying to make conversation, won't even look at her, and she's not sure if he's angry at her or himself. Ron copes by totally failing to cope, and that at least is what she's accustomed to.

She finds herself spending a lot of time talking to the ghosts. Nearly-Headless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost, is sympathetic if not always helpful, and the Gray Lady of Ravenclaw silently listens to her troubles, patting her gently on the shoulder.

Fall fades gloomily into winter, matching Hermione's mood. She spends more time than ever in the library, unable to stand the air of discomfort in the Gryffindor common room. Professor McGonagall takes her aside at the end of class one November afternoon and politely, gently asks her to stop coming to class; she is a distraction to the students.

Hermione has more free time than she knows what to do with. With class and the common room off limits, she rambles through the halls of Hogwarts, discovering secret rooms and passageways not even the Marauder's Map knows about.

The year passes. Eventually, her classmates stop doing a double-take when they see her, their eyes now sliding past her as she roams. It is, in some ways, a relief; Hermione is tired of the stares, the whispers.

Winter greens, buds out into spring, life returning to the castle grounds, but not to Hermione. She feels haunted, like the spectre of the fight at the Ministry follows her around. She realizes her total disconnect from the rest of the castle when Gryffindor wins the House Cup again and no one asks her to participate in the celebrations.

Too quickly, the year is over. She skips the Leaving Feast, and stands mournfully in the Entrance Hall the next day, watching the carriages trundle down the Hogwarts grounds, carrying her classmates away for another summer. Around her, Hogwarts is dead and empty.

After some time, Nearly-Headless Nick drifts down to join her. "I thought I'd find you here," he says.

"Is it always like this, Nick?" she asks. "Every year, like this?"

He nods, both his ruff and his head wobbling. "Every year. They go, and you stay, and wait for the next year. You do get used to it, after a while . . ."

Then Hermione cries, the first time she has cried since the battle at the Ministry. As she weeps, wiping pearly-white tears from her translucent cheeks, Hermione understands Moaning Myrtle's sadness.


	5. V

On the first Sunday after Hermione's seventh year at Hogwarts School ends, she makes her annual pilgrimage to the graveyard at Godric's Hollow. She carries her usual bouquet: purple hyacinths, marigolds, and dark crimson roses. Wending her way past the ancient graves, she comes to one, newer than the rest, but starting to look settled now, not raw like it did last year.

She stands before the grave, holding her flowers, and breathes for a few minutes before beginning her usual monologue. "It's been a long year, this year," she says. "A lot of students left Hogwarts early. Dean Thomas's entire family was killed. Neville was murdered over the Christmas holidays. I don't think there's anyone left in Hufflepuff. And last week we heard that Charlie –" She takes a moment to steady her voice. "Charlie was found dead in Romania. We're pretty sure he was killed by Death Eaters.

"We're doing what we can to fight, but – oh, it's so hard. Voldemort has such a lead on us. Dumbledore's doing his best, but he looks so tired all the time anymore. Professor Lupin was nearly killed in a fight with eight Death Eaters, Sirius was going spare. Tonks – you don't know Tonks, she's this really nice Auror – she was killed in the same fight.

"Professor Snape is gone. He just disappeared from the school last fall. No one knows where he is, or what he's doing – Dumbledore says he knows and it's okay, so I guess we just have to take his word for it.

"Minister Fudge is dead. The Death Eaters took the Ministry in October – just stormed in and took it. Mr. Weasley got out alive, and Percy – Percy survived, but he's . . . he's working for _them_. Ron told me there was a huge row at Christmas . . ."

She looks down, scuffs one toe in the grass. "I'm okay, though. So are my parents. So is Ron. He's gotten tall – almost taller than Bill. We're still together, Ron and I – it'll be two years in September. He drives me mad sometimes, but I love him. I know," she says, laughing gently, "I know."

Hermione pauses, unsure really what to say next. A gust of wind ruffles her hair and her clothes, and she reaches up to brush a lock of hair away from her face. "I miss you, you know," she says after a few minutes. "It's just not right without you. We've tried – we've tried to make everything right, keep it right – but it's all gone wrong. I feel like – like if maybe I'd been just a little smarter, a little more clever, you'd be here – but nobody knew, nobody realized, not at first. Well, when you didn't come back, Dumbledore knew, but I didn't –"

She tries to wipe her tears away, but gives up and lets them come. "I was supposed to keep you safe," she says, voice constricted. "I'm so sorry."

She stands at the grave, tears steadily running down her cheeks, for a few minutes before she is able to get herself under control. She can't think of anything else to say, so she kneels, laying her bouquet on the headstone and running her fingers over the words engraved into the granite.

_Harry James Potter  
July 31, 1980 - June 24, 1995  
Quiet consummation have, and renowned be thy grave_

With a soft _pop!_ she Apparates away.


End file.
